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Comics A.M. | Axel Alonso on Marvel's female superheroes

Publishing | Admitting that "I don’t think men are as sexualized as women" in Marvel comics, Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso says the publisher is moving toward including more types of female characters: "We believe there’s an audience of women out there who are hungry for this and we want to make sure they get it. This is affirmative action. This is capitalism." Later he states, "I challenge you to find in Ms. Marvel anything that resembles the Playboy model standard. But I don’t want to be Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes. We’re creating stories. I don’t want to say there’s no room for stuff that’s not just fun. Then you’re censoring yourself. I want to make sure I have books like Ms. Marvel and Black Widow that I’m proud about and could give to my daughter. But at the same time I don’t want to be the PC police and say you can’t be naughty; you can’t be fun.” [The Telegraph]

Retailing | Musician and filmmaker Stewart Copeland has set up a "pop-up comic shop" in a Nashville, Tennessee, record store, featuring a hand-picked selection of indie and self-published comics: "These are things that people make in their house, or micro-publishers that are releasing these things in relatively small quantities, that are really pushing artists, challenging the form and doing interesting things in comics. But you have to work harder to get it." [Nashville Scene]

Creators | In a radio interview, Darren Davis of Bluewater Productions discusses his new bio-comic of David Bowie. [WGN Radio]

Retailing | While traditional bookstores may be struggling, business is booming at Dragon's Lair, a comic shop that opened in May in Mililani Mauka, Hawaii. [Honolulu Magazine]

Retailing | Jeremy Silveira, co-owner of the Provo, Utah, comic shop Dragon's Keep, attributes the store's success to the lack of a bar scene in Utah: "The comic shop is the bar scene in Utah. That’s where it’s at." [Daily Herald]

Conventions | The Utah Transit Authority set a record for the number of rides in a three-day period — 312,636, nearly triple the usual Thursday-Friday-Saturday ridership — because of the locals who attended Salt Lake Comic Con. [Salt Lake Tribune]

Conventions | Coming this weekend, the Heart of Texas Comic Con, is the second comics convention of the year for Waco, Texas, but organizers were surprised by the popularity of the first event: Co-founder Larry Otswald said he expected 1,000 to 2,000 attendees at the March show but instead there were nearly 9,000. [Waco Tribune]

Conventions | This weekend will also bring the inaugural Memphis Comic Expo, which will have more of a comics focus than most comic cons; guests will include Kate Leth, Mike Norton and Jim Mahfood. [The Commercial Appeal]